Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Uptown's New Target Store Opens For Elite Only

I couldn't make it over to the new Target for their private tour today. It was a private party for media people and dignitaries, not for the regular unwashed folks who will actually shop there when it opens on Sunday, July 25.
I've already shared a sneak peak with you (here and here), and I'm not sorry I missed the private to-do today. Mayor Daley showed up to pretend he cares. Helen Shiller, who used taxpayer money to subsidize the building of the structure in which Target now resides, was there because this is her crowning achievement, a public grand theft for which she will forever congratulate herself.
Oh look! Shelving! Oh look! The same merchandise as in every other Target! Wow, lookee there! Cash registers! I mean, really, folks it's just a department store. CBS2 was there, or so they say; here are excerpts from their amusingly poor report (emphasis added):
A long-awaited new Target store is set to open this coming weekend in the heart of the Uptown neighborhood. The new Target store is opening this coming Sunday on the piece of land known as Wilson Yard, along Broadway between Wilson and Montrose avenues. The street address is 4466 N. Broadway. Target says the 200,000 square-foot store will bring 300 jobs to the neighborhood. The general-merchandise store will include the typical café, pharmacy and optical center, as well as a Starbucks and a Pizza Hut Express.... A new Aldi store is also on the site.The CBS2 report stinks for several reasons:Broadway and Montrose is not "the heart" of Uptown. If there is a "heart," it would be the strip from Broadway-Wilson east to Sheridan-Wilson. That's were the best drugs can be found, and most easily, along with bootleg movie DVDs, stolen cartons of cigarettes, and random hot-action gang shootings.
Once again, a major local news outlet shows its unfamiliarity with a neighborhood. While literally it's correct that Target is "between Wilson and Montrose avenues," it would have been more precise to say that it's "between Sunnyside and Montrose avenues."
The new Target "will include the typical café.... as well as a Starbucks," says CBS2. Huh? A "typical café" AND a Starbucks? Does Starbucks know about this?
Most amusing of all, CBS2 wrote that "A new Aldi store is also on the site." No, that's not exactly true. There is an Aldi nearby, but it's just north of the site and not on it, and it's more than three years old. Their grand opening was June 18, 2007. Does CBS2 make this stuff up? Don't they bother to research their stories before they publish them?
You want good coverage of today's private show-and-tell at Target? Watch Lake Effect News for their story later today. LEN's Lorraine Swanson was there, and unlike CBS2, she actually knows Uptown.
RELATED:
Wilson Yard Evolution, A Photo EssayTarget? No Bull's Eye at Wilson Yard (Yet)Ald. Shiller Booed at Wilson Yard Task Force MeetingChicago Alderman's Fish Farm Fantasy